Machinedrum

Travis Stewart, the American electronic musician behind Machinedrum, has also issued material under the names Syndrone, tstewart, Neon Black, and Aden. Early releases credited to Machine Drum (two words) positioned him among the leading figures of glitch-hop in the initial years of the 2000s. Acclaimed albums such as 2001's Now You Know and 2004's Bidnezz blended hip-hop rhythms with the precisely sequenced experimental electronic textures associated with IDM imprints including Skam, Warp, and Rephlex. His approach evolved across subsequent decades, as 2009's Want to 1 2? embraced more dancefloor-oriented forms like house, boogie, and dubstep. The 2011 album Room(s) pivoted toward an energetic fusion of juke and U.K. bass variants, while 2013's Vapor City merged footwork and jungle. Stewart has maintained an active schedule through joint ventures including Sepalcure (alongside Praveen Sharma) and JETS (with Jimmy Edgar), plus production contributions for Dawn Richard, Azealia Banks, and Jesse Boykins III. His solo projects, among them 2020's A View of U, incorporated guest appearances by Freddie Gibbs and Tigran Hamasyan. Exploration of drum'n'bass and garage persisted on EPs such as 2023's 4#TRAX and the 2024 full-length 3FOR82, which again featured numerous collaborators.

Although Stewart's debut, the drill'n'bass explorations titled Triskaideka issued as Syndrone in early 2000, came first, the initial output under Machine Drum arrived as a hazy, skittering hybrid leaning more toward hip-hop and ambient than toward early Squarepusher. The track "Izey Rael" set the pattern for subsequent early Machine Drum work. Now You Know followed in 2001, earning underground praise and establishing the nineteen-year-old producer among the leading prospects in IDM and left-field hip-hop circles. Merck, the Miami-based glitch-hop label active throughout the first half of the 2000s, handled the release. Subsequent projects included Urban Biology and the remix album Half the Battle (both 2002), Bidnezz (2004), and the double-CD remix set Mergerz & Acquisitionz (2006). That same year, a split-EP with Drop the Lime appeared via Shockout, Tigerbeat6's dancehall/jungle subsidiary, alongside the DJ battle tools LP Cached on the Inside.

After pausing for several years to complete college, Stewart relocated to New York City. With Merck having shut down in 2007, he shortened the name to Machinedrum and launched the label and production entity Normrex, which put out Want to 1 2? before dissolving. His sound thereafter grew more kinetic and drew from Chicago's developing juke/footwork movement along with multiple strands of the U.K. bass continuum. A renewed creative period in the 2010s brought a deal with Planet Mu for Room(s) and with Hotflush for Sepalcure's self-titled debut, both ranking among the most celebrated dance albums of 2011.

In 2012, Stewart formed the duo JETS with Jimmy Edgar and joined Om Unit for the Dream Continuum project, which examined intersections between jungle and juke; Planet Mu issued their Reworkz EP that year. Machinedrum extended the hybrid approach on the conceptual Vapor City, his inaugural Ninja Tune release, in 2013. Production work for Azealia Banks and Jesse Boykins III followed, as did a division of time between New York and Berlin. After helming most of Boykins' Love Apparatus in 2014, he issued Vapor City Archives. Hotflush released Sepalcure's second album Folding Time two years later, while Ninja Tune put out Human Energy, Machinedrum's most pop-oriented effort to that date. Further singles arrived, among them 2017's "1 2 B Needed" featuring Roses Gabor and 2018's "Hype Up," before JETS delivered the 2019 debut Zoospa with contributions from Dawn Richard, Mykki Blanco, and Tkay Maidza.

Berry Patch, a joint effort with producer Holly (Miguel Oliveira), surfaced on Noisia's Vision Recordings in 2020 together with the remix EP Berry Patch: Blended. Machinedrum returned to Ninja Tune with A View of U, a hip-hop and drum'n'bass blend featuring Freddie Gibbs, Father, Sub Focus, and Chrome Sparks. The 2021 EP Psyconia included guest spots from Angelica Bess, Deniro Farrar, Chrome Sparks, and Jorge Elbrecht. Following a return to the tstewart alias for the 2022 downtempo album Elysian, Machinedrum issued another EP with Holly, River of Heaven, in 2023. 4#TRAX blended drum'n'bass and garage with appearances by Kučka, Liz, and Rei Brown. Named after Stewart's birthdate, 3FOR82 arrived in 2024. Sustaining the synthesis of drum'n'bass, hip-hop, R&B, and garage, the album showcased Tinashe, Mick Jenkins, Duckwrth, Aja Monet, and additional contributors.